


Loose Lips Sink Ships

by thekeybladetomyheart (ObsessedMuch)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Inspired By Tumblr, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Underage Drinking, diverges before KHIII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 21:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17711762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsessedMuch/pseuds/thekeybladetomyheart
Summary: During a break from training, Sora gets drunk in The Caribbean. His friends are...less than amused. But when they try to get him to bed before he hurts himself, he reveals something that just might change everything.





	Loose Lips Sink Ships

**Author's Note:**

> Alright the title is unnecessarily dramatic, but I couldn't help it. I started writing this before Kingdom Hearts III came out, but between work and the release of the game, I was only able to finish it the other night. So, enjoy some Destiny Trio fluff that's completely free of the absolute cluster that was the canon ending to that game.
> 
> For the purposes of this story, Lea and Kairi are training at the Mysterious Tower with Sora and Riku. It takes place in a nebulous period of time, where Sora has access to the different worlds in Kingdom Hearts III but no other plot details are present. 
> 
> The post that inspired this story can be found here: https://violetstar-writes.tumblr.com/post/181898008773/jack-sparrow-here-sora-have-someapple

In retrospect, Riku really should have known that Captain Jack Sparrow would be a bad influence. Hell, the man was a notorious pirate who made no excuses for his erratic and self-serving behavior. Unfortunately, he was also someone that Sora considered a friend. So when Sora asked to go visit during some downtime from training, Riku couldn’t bring himself to protest when Yen Sid granted the request. He’d always been weak to his best friend’s pout, anyway. Still, he can’t say he expected to end the night with an armful of giggling teenage boy.

“Riku, your arm muscles are so awesome.” Sora’s words were slurring together as he ran a clumsy hand up and down Riku’s right arm. Luckily, he was too engrossed in watching his own hand to notice the bright red flush that bloomed on Riku’s face. “Why don’t I have awesome muscles? I’ve been using the Keyblade for longer than you. I should have arm muscles like yours.” Now he sounded almost petulant, and it would have made Riku smile if he weren’t so worried.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but how exactly did he end up like this?” Riku looked up at Goofy and Donald, who were shuffling uncomfortably. When they didn’t answer immediately, Riku looked down again to scan Sora for any obvious injuries. Considering his strange behavior, Riku suspected a concussion.

“Well, here’s the thing…” Donald started, sounding reluctant.

“We weren’t actually with Sora when it happened…” Goofy didn’t sound any more eager than Donald did, which made Riku huff in annoyance. Before he could give a smart retort, Sora lurched up to grab at his face.

“Hey, ‘s not their fault, so don’t be mad at them,” he breathed out into Riku’s face. Turquoise eyes widened as a sharp odor stung his nose, and Riku turned again to Donald and Goofy.

“Please tell me you didn’t actually let a _sixteen year old_ get drunk,” he hissed out. The other two simply fixed him with guilty stares. “You’re supposed to be the adults, here. How did you let this happen?”

“Wait, how’d you know I’m drunk?” Riku just raised one eyebrow at him, which made Sora giggle again. “You don’t know my life! Maybe I’m just really happy to see you!”

“Even if I believed that explanation for why you’re even more handsy than usual, I know what alcohol smells like and you reek of it.” As he spoke, he began maneuvering the two of them over to a nearby couch. Despite his smaller stature, the younger boy was surprisingly heavy. Especially when he was falling all over himself.

Sora blinked, then frowned just a little. “Oh, you mean ‘cause of…”Riku paused, hands clenching involuntarily. “Yeah, because of my dad.” He said it quietly, all too aware of the other curious ears in the room and still unwilling to talk about it with anyone who wasn’t Sora or Kairi.

Thankfully, he was offered the perfect distraction when the door to the room slammed open. He didn’t even need to turn to know that it was Lea, because the older man couldn’t ever resist making a dramatic entrance. The voice that spoke first, however, made both him and Sora perk up.

“Sora, you’re back,” Kairi chirped, energetic despite the grueling practice he knew she’d just come from. She crossed the room quickly towards them, though she slowed as she took in Sora’s disheveled appearance. “Are you okay? You look a little rough.”

The boy in question gave her a wide—if somewhat vacant—smile. “Yeah, I feel so great right now. Like, really great. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this great.”

Kairi’s brow furrowed, clearly thrown by his overly enthusiastic answer. She glanced over at Riku for more information.

“Apparently, this blockhead managed to get drunk over in Port Royal while unsupervised.” Her eyes grew wide, the confusion shifting to concern.

“How did that even happen?” she asked, sitting down on Sora’s other side.

“Jack said that Sora drank almost half a bottle of rum all by himself,” Goofy admitted.

“What?!” Riku, Kairi and Lea all shouted at once, though Lea sounded suspiciously amused.

“He told me it was apple juice!” Sora pouted when they all turned to him with disapproving looks. “I asked him why he was drinking it, and he said ‘real men drink apple juice.’”

Riku slapped a hand to his face, realizing exactly where this story was going. “And you took that as a challenge, didn’t you?” Kairi made an exasperated noise.

Sora’s nose wrinkled cutely as he looked straight at Riku. “Well, duh. I had to prove that I was a real man, too. So I grabbed the bottle from the table and drank the rest of it. And let me tell you something: that was the worst apple juice I’ve ever tasted.” He shuddered, and Lea’s composure finally snapped.

He doubled over, clutching his stomach as he roared with laughter. “I always knew your self-preservation instinct was a little rusty, but I didn’t think it was _this_ bad,” he managed to choke out. “How are you even still alive?” He seemed entirely unaffected by the glares he was getting from Kairi and Riku as he wiped tears from his eyes.

“Quit it, Lea! It’s not like he knew what he was doing,” Kairi said sternly. “Even though he should have known better in this case.” She added the last sentence in an undertone, only meant for Sora and Riku to hear.

“Oh come on, I’m just teasing. You’ve got to admit that, even with every crazy thing you guys have done so far, this one really takes the cake.” Lea’s laughter had calmed a little, but that just meant he was giggling like a madman.

“I feel like I should be insulted. Should I be insulted? Riku, should I be insulted?” Sora was frowning in confusion now, eyes darting back and forth erratically between him and the still-giggling Lea. He had probably intended the last part to come out as a whisper, but it was loud enough to set the redhead off again.

Riku sighed. “Maybe we should just get you to bed, Sora.” There wasn’t a lot they could do for him right now, outside of watching him for signs of alcohol poisoning. He just needed to sleep it off.

“Nooooo I don’t wanna go to bed!” Sora protested as Kairi and Riku worked together to lift him up from the couch an head towards the bedroom wing. “I just wanna hang out with you guys, because you’re my bestest friends and I love you.”

Riku’s grip slipped for a second at the sudden declaration, though he recovered quickly enough that Sora only jerked instead of falling. He steadfastly ignored Kairi’s curious gaze, hoping that his cheeks hadn’t flushed again. He _knew_ Sora didn’t mean it like that, no matter how much Riku wished he did.

But his best friend had made it clear several times that they were just that: _best friends_. Riku had been upset about it at first, but he’d realized that his hurt feelings weren’t worth losing Sora from his life. So he’d swallowed it down, determined to never give in to his traitorous heart.

And yet, a few simple words from a drunk teenager had been enough to send a painful shock down his spine. Clearly, he hadn’t pushed those feelings down as far as he’d thought. He’d barely felt the frown pull down the corners of his mouth before an insistent finger to the forehead made him stumble.

“Hey, I know that face,” Sora said. “That’s the face you make when you’re being mean to yourself, and I don’t like it. You should be nicer to yourself.”

Riku couldn’t help his answering smile, faint as it was. “Not all of us are quite as confident in ourselves as you are. Self-doubt may be a foreign concept to you, but the rest of us aren’t so lucky.”

He’d meant the comment to be a weak-but-acceptable joke, something Sora would brush off with a laugh and some garbled words of encouragement. He hadn’t expected the teen to suddenly dig in his heels, shooting him an unwavering look despite the wobble in his posture.

“I doubt myself all the time,” he said seriously, a harsh shift from the earlier giggling and affectionate pawing.

Kairi, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet so far, found her voice again. “Sora, what does that mean?” Her words were gentle, just like the hand she still had braced against his shoulder.

“I’m not supposed to be the hero of this story. I wasn’t even supposed to have this Keyblade, but by some twist of fate, I ended up with it. D’you really think I don’t wonder how differently things would have gone, if you’d just gotten the Keyblade in the first place? Maybe everything that happened—everything that went wrong—would have turned out just fine, if I hadn’t been the one to mess it up.” Riku was stunned into silence; self-deprecation and pessimism had always been his territory, and he didn’t know how to deal with the ever-optimistic Sora blaming himself for this whole mess. He just stared at the other boy with wide eyes, chest growing tight and painful.

Luckily, Kairi seemed to sense his rising panic and quickly pulled Sora into position between them again. “Alright, now I know it’s time for bed. You’re clearly too grumpy to be awake right now.”

And just like that, the spell was broken and Sora laughed again. “’m not grumpy, ‘m just letting Riku know he doesn’t have the monopoly on dark thoughts.”

“Message received,” Riku said breezily. “Next time I’m feeling sorry for myself, I’ll make sure to invite you so we can have a proper pity party.”

Kairi giggled. “No one gets to be all pessimistic alone in this house.”

“Damn right.”

“Sora! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?” The mock offense in Riku’s voice was enough to send both of the other teens into hysterics, and they only barely made it to Sora’s room in the Tower without anyone falling over. They carefully led Sora over to his bed, sitting him down on top of his blankets.

“Alright Junior Hero, this is where we leave you for the night. Get some sleep, okay?” Kairi tried to pry Sora’s hand off her shoulder, but he was holding on stubbornly. Riku was in much the same predicament on his other side.

“You know, for someone who can’t even stand up straight, this is a pretty ridiculous demonstration of strength.” If he didn’t know better, he’d think the younger boy was part-octopus.

“Don’t leave me alone. Come on, guys, we can have a sleepover just like we used to when we were kids.” He was listing over dangerously, nose practically brushing the blanket, but he still managed to hold on to them like his life depended on it. Kairi sighed, flopping down on the bed next to him.

“We haven’t had one of those in years, Sora. Our parents stopped allowing it after you told your mom that you were going to marry me and Riku both, once we grew up.”

Sora groaned, face-planting into his pillow. “Nooooo why did you make me remember that?”  
Riku smirked from above them, still standing next to the bed. “Oh come on, that can’t be anywhere close to the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever said. Besides, it’s not like you actually meant it.”

“Of course I meant it.” He turned to offer up a lackluster glare. “What kind of insincere jerk do you take me for?”

“I just meant…never mind.” Riku wasn’t feeling quite pathetic enough to bring up the distinct lack of romantic interest on Sora’s part. It wouldn’t be fair to Sora, in any case, to try and have this discussion while he was so clearly out of sorts. He turned to leave, only to be jerked back by the hold Sora still had on his arm.

Sora tugged again once he was already off balance, and Riku went sprawling on the bed, knocking Kairi over as he fell. She protested half-heartedly, though she quickly changed course and settled herself comfortably on Sora’s bed.

“I’m not going to get much of a choice in this, am I?” Riku asked grudgingly.

“Nope,” Sora and Kairi said at the same time.

Kairi nudged him into position on Sora’s other side. “Come on, it could be fun.”

Faced with their pleading faces, Riku felt his resolve crumbling in record time. He sighed and got comfortable. If nothing else, sticking around meant they’d be here if Sora actually got sick at all.

For a few blessed minutes, comfortable silence blanketed the room. Their friendship had long since reached the point where they could all simply enjoy each other’s physical presence. Except, of course, for times when Sora was feeling extra chatty. Tonight seemed to be one of those times.

“D’you guys remember the last sleepover we had, that one on the Play Island? The one a few weeks before the Islands fell to darkness, where we spent the night up on the tree house?”

“You mean the night that our parents definitely don’t know about, and officially never happened?” Riku asked slyly. “I’m still surprised you managed to keep your mouth shut long enough to trick your mom into letting you out.”

Kairi laughed. “Selphie still holds that night over my head when she’s mad at me for not hanging out with her.”

“I told you not to use her as your alibi. That girl is too excitable for her own good.”

“It wasn’t like I had a lot of choices, Riku! She was the only other girl I could trust to actually lie for me, because you and I both know that Rina can’t keep a secret to save her life.”

“Y’know, keeping secrets is overrated.” Sora sounded sleepy now, and his eyes kept drifting shut. “It’s so much work.”

“Oh really, Mister I’m-An-Open-Book?” Kairi teased. “What kind of secrets are you working so hard to keep?”

Something shifted in Sora’s eyes, and Riku felt the change as a tingle that ran down his spine.

A dopey-looking grin spread across the brunet’s face. “Have I ever told you how much I love you, Kairi?”

“Not recently,” she giggled as she covered Sora’s face with her hand, “but I got the picture. You’re one of my best friends, after all.”

But Sora wasn’t done. His smile turned down just a little at the corners before he continued. “No, I mean, I _really_ love you.”

Riku stiffened. He wondered if it would be too obvious if he used his dark abilities to vanish from the room. Instead of doing so, he watched Kairi’s eyes grow wide as she struggled to respond.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time to talk about this,” she said cautiously. “You’re still drunk, and we’re not exactly alone.” Her violet eyes flickered up to catch Riku’s turquoise ones.

He rolled over, preparing to stand. He could read between the lines easily enough, and he wouldn’t let his problems stand in their way. He started to excuse himself, but he only got as far as, “I’ll just leave—” before Sora cut him off.“But I love Riku, too, so he needs to be here,” he said in a petulant voice.

“Wait, what?” Kairi asked, while Riku just froze with his mouth hanging open. He considered the possibility that this was all an elaborate hallucination. Maybe he was the one with the concussion, and this was all just the resulting crazy dream. A strong grip on his arm grabbed his attention once again.

“Riku, why are you leaving?” Sora was looking up at him from the bed, which he’d apparently stood up from while he was questioning his sanity. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, unsure what to say.

He finally decided on, “I don’t think I should be here right now.” Kairi seemed to think the same thing, because she also stood up. Sora blinked up at both of them.

“We should talk about this some other time,” she said. She stepped over to help Riku pry Sora’s hand away from the older boy’s arm, but they both stopped in their tracks when blue eyes filled with tears.

“Why are you guys always leaving me?” The crack in his voice pulled at Riku’s heartstrings, and he was helpless to the way he slumped back down on the bed.

“That’s not fair,” he said faintly.

“And not accurate,” Kairi added. “I’m the one that keeps getting left behind while you guys go on adventures.”

But logic had no effect when talking to a distraught, inebriated teenager. “You guys always leave me alone, and then I have to find you. I don’t want to be left alone anymore, I just want you guys to stay.” Tears started falling down his cheeks in earnest. “Please don’t leave me alone,” he whimpered.

Immediately, Kairi was lying down next to Sora again, and it didn’t take long for Riku to do the same.

It took a few minutes to calm him down, but eventually Sora fell asleep between them, snoring lightly. As if acting on a mutual signal, the other two teenagers slid from the bed carefully. Kairi grabbed Riku’s hand before he could get too far, tugging him out of the room purposefully.

“You know, I think it’s kind of late and I’m pretty tired after training today. So really, we should both just call it a night.” He knew he was babbling at this point, but he had a bad feeling about the determined look on her face.

She didn’t bother to respond, simply pulling him along until they reached Riku’s bedroom. For a brief shining moment, he thought she was giving him the reprieve he was all but begging for. That hope shattered into a million pieces when she followed him into the room and shut the door firmly. He slumped down on his bed.

“We need to talk,” she said as she leaned against the door, cutting off any hope of escaping.

“Ominous. Which usually isn’t your style.” He was carefully avoiding looking at her, as if he could make her go away by deflecting and wishing hard enough.

“Playing dumb isn’t usually your style, either, yet here we are.” He could feel her eyes on him, and he finally gave in and looked up at her.

“I really, _really_ don’t want to have this conversation,” he admitted. Her gaze softened, and she took a few steps toward him.

“I’m nervous about this, too, but I think we both know it’s important. So I’m not going to beat around the bush here, and I hope you can offer me the same.” She sat down next to him. “How do you feel about Sora?”

“How do I…I’m…” He sighed. Better to rip the Band-Aid off quickly. “I’ve basically been in love with him since I was 12.”

“And I’ve been in love with him since we were 13. I may not have known it at the time, but these past two years have really opened up my eyes.”

“Okay, so we’re both in love with him. Where do we go from here? It’s not like we can both be in a relationship with him.”

“Why not?” Kairi’s response was quick, and Riku jerked in surprise.

“What do you mean, why not? I’m not sure if you noticed, but dating involves two people, and we have three in this equation. You’re the math whiz, so you know that doesn’t add up.”

“Well, smartass, you ever hear of polyamory?”

He didn’t even think before he answered. “Polyamory: ‘poly’ meaning multiple or more than one, ‘-amory’ meaning love.” He blinked as his brain caught up with his mouth. “Wait…what?”

Now Kairi looked almost nervous, lacing her fingers together and placing them on her knees. “What it means for us is that we’d all be dating each other; it would be the three of us, together.”

“Is that even allowed?” He stared at her, trying to figure out if she was being serious or if this was a cosmically cruel joke. Kairi wouldn’t normally be the kind of person to pull something like that, but he wasn’t sure he could believe that she wanted to do this.

“As long as we’re all okay with it, I don’t give a shit what anyone else has to say.” Her eyes were hard. “They’re not the ones in the relationship, so they have nothing to contribute.”

“Always have to be the badass, don’t you?” Riku teased. “How am I going to maintain my bad boy image if you keep stealing my lines?”

“Just get better lines, then you won’t have to listen to me being cliché.” She laughed half-heartedly, but then sobered up again. “But first, I have to ask: are you okay with this?”

Riku tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Are you okay with being in a relationship with me, even though you don’t feel the same way about me that you do about Sora?”

He paused, eyebrows knitting together as he grabbed her shoulder. “Kairi…what are you even talking about? How can you possibly think I don’t love you?”

Kairi jumped, turning vulnerable eyes up to look at him. “But…you never said anything! I thought you felt something for Sora, based on the way you look at him all the time, but you never look at me like that.”

Laughter burst out of him before he could bite it back, but the hurt look on Kairi’s face killed it after only a few seconds. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed. It’s just that I can’t believe you don’t know that I’m in love with you. I gave in to the darkness to save you.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head. “I’m not claiming that my intentions were entirely pure during that time, but you have to know that it all started because I needed to save you. Everything got twisted up after a while, but I never could stand the thought of you being in trouble. And when Ansem finally took control of my body, I was only able to hold him off in Hollow Bastion because it meant protecting you.”

“Do you really mean it?”

“Of course I do. I don’t know how you missed it, considering the fact that Lea never misses an opportunity to mock me about it. Just the other day, he told me to stop looking like a kicked puppy every time of you walks by.”

She giggled. “That does sound like something he’d say.”

“How about you, though? Are you okay with sharing Sora with me?” He almost snorted at the mild glare she shot at him.

“I think it’s my turn to ask, ‘what do you mean?’ Riku, I wouldn’t have suggested this if I wasn’t in love with you, too.”

Dumbfounded, he couldn’t respond coherently. Instead, they sat on his bed in silence. Eventually, he found his voice and cleared his throat meaningfully.

“I do have one condition,” he said. “I don’t know if Sora is going to remember any of that conversation tonight, and I’m not comfortable with confronting him about something he either didn’t mean, or didn’t want to tell us. So if we’re going to do this, he’ll have to come to us first.”

“That’s…an odd request. What if he doesn’t remember? Are we just going to pretend that we never had this second conversation?”

“At least for a little while. I don’t want to pressure him into anything, because you and I both know how far he’ll go to make people happy. And until this whole thing with Xehanort is sorted out, there’s no room for him to be distracted if he’s going to be on the front lines.”

She sighed. “You’re right about that. He’ll do just about anything if he thinks we want him to, regardless of the effect on him. I’ll agree to your condition, as long as you agree that we’ll talk to him after this is all over.”

“That’s fair. We’ve got ourselves a deal, then.” He reached over cautiously to grab one of Kairi’s hands, lifting it to his mouth as he placed a gentlemanly kiss on the back of it. She blushed before taking her hand back.

“You’re so smooth, it seems almost like a waste that I’m already in love with you.” With that comment and a hearty laugh, she left his room.

Despite all his protests about being tired, Riku didn’t sleep well at all that night. He alternated between staring up at the ceiling and tossing back and forth restlessly. It all seemed a little too easy, a little too perfect. And in his experience, things that seemed too good to be true often were.

By the time Donald and Goofy came to wake everyone up, Riku had long since given up trying to sleep and was methodically counting and sorting his supplies. It was a wholly unnecessary task considering that he kept careful watch over his personal stock, but it gave him something to do to take his mind off the knot in his stomach. He called through the door to let them know he was up, but didn’t bother to stop what he was doing.

He lost track of time after that, only pausing when he heard another knock on the door. Standing up carefully so that he didn’t disturb his neat piles, he walked over to the door.

As he opened it, he started to say, “I told you guys, I’m already awake,” but the words died in his mouth when he caught sight of tousled brown hair and blue eyes.

“Hey,” Sora said. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt, and Riku could see the slight tremor in his hands.

“Hey,” he replied, biting his tongue at the lame response.

“Can we talk?” The question was hesitant, and it set off alarm bells in Riku’s head.

“Ominous. But sure.”

“You already made that joke once, and I’m now banning the use of that word for at least three days,” came Kairi’s voice from behind Sora. Riku jumped; he hadn’t realized she was there.

“If you ban all my jokes, then I’ll be too boring to hang out with.” He gestured for them to enter the room, since it was obvious that he wasn’t getting out of this conversation, either. “Actually, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea right now. I’ll be super boring, and you two will leave in no time.”

“Nah, you’re not getting rid of us that easily.” At least Sora wasn’t feeling too nervous to tease. He flopped down gracelessly on the bed, knocking over several of the supply piles.

Riku dove towards the bed, managing to catch several Potions before they fell and shattered. “Watch it, you’re knocking all my stuff over. I had it all sorted out, you know.”

“I don’t know why you bothered to do all that. It’s all going to get mixed up at some point, anyway.” Sora shrugged, making himself at home on the bed. Meanwhile, Kairi had at least been courteous enough to pull up a chair instead, though it meant Riku either had to stand or sit on the bed next to Sora.

“Maybe I like knowing what I have and don’t have,” he said as he shoved everything carefully back into the pockets of his gear.

“Aww, but half the fun is never knowing if you actually have a Potion left in your pocket when you need it.” Riku stopped what he was doing to give Sora a hard look, eyebrow raised in a mixture of disbelief and concern.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” he said flatly. Sora scratched his cheek sheepishly, which was definitely not the answer Riku wanted.

“You can’t always rely on Donald to heal you, Sora,” Kairi chimed in from her chair. “He can’t focus entirely on you, all the time.”

“I know that,” he protested. “But it’s fine. It’s not like I don’t know Cure, as well. And I was kidding, you know. Mostly.”

“And it’s that ‘mostly’ that worries us.” Riku had finally finished putting everything away. Now his hands were empty and he couldn’t hide from what was coming. With a sigh, he decided to cut to the chase. “So, you said we needed to talk. I’m listening.”

He almost felt bad about the flash of fear he saw on Sora’s face, even if he didn’t quite understand it. The other boy sat up straight on the bed and began fidgeting with his shirt again.

“I know I wasn’t entirely in my right mind last night, and I’m pretty sure I said some things that made you both really uncomfortable.” He refused to look at them, staring resolutely at the floor. “I’m really sorry about that. I never meant for you guys to find out, especially like that. I hope you can forgive me.”

“What do you mean, you never meant for us to find out?” Kairi asked.

Sora’s cheeks flushed. “I called it a secret for a reason. I didn’t want you to know how hopelessly in love I was with the two of you, because I didn’t want you to feel like you had to do anything on my behalf.” He smiled half-heartedly, still not looking at either of them. “I was also afraid that you guys might not feel the same way. About me, at least. I didn’t want to make things awkward.”

For a moment, no one spoke. Sora started to curl in on himself, but looked up when Kairi finally spoke.

“You’re such an idiot, Sora.” She shook her head, shoulder-length hair bobbing furiously. Riku snorted.

“Probably not the best way to start this discussion,” he said as Sora glanced back and forth between them. There was a hint of suspicion in his gaze, so maybe it was time to stop being so cryptic.

Kairi seemed to agree. “We both love you, Sora. And before you ask, _yes_ , I mean that kind of love.” Sora’s mouth fell open as he looked at her, stunned into silence.

“Way to ease him into it, Kairi,” Riku muttered. She huffed.

“Well, if you’re just going to criticize all my attempts, maybe you should tell him.” She crossed her arms childishly.

“Fine, I will. Sora, you should probably close your mouth before you start drooling on my blankets.” He snapped his jaw shut with an audible click, which made Riku chuckle. “So I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that we all love each other. As Kairi so sweetly pointed out to me last night, there’s really no reason we can’t all be together in a relationship. As long as that’s okay with you. I mean, if you want to, but don’t feel like you have to.”

“Wow, cool and confident. You sure know how to make a girl swoon.” Kairi’s tone was saccharine, and Riku resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her. “Well, you started out pretty great, even if you hit a snag and launched yourself off a cliff after that.”

“Thank you, peanut gallery, for such a ringing endorsement,” Riku said dryly.

Sora still hadn’t said anything, staring at the wall with wide eyes. Kairi reached over to nudge him, face suddenly concerned.

“Hey Sora, are you okay?” she asked.

“Huh?” he replied, looking at her in surprise. “Yeah I’m fine, I’m just trying to figure out if I’m still drunk and imagining this.”

Riku laughed. “Stand up,” he directed. Sora looked at him expectantly as he complied. He waited a few seconds before adding, “seeing as you’re not sprawled on the ground right now, I think it’s a pretty good bet that you’re not still drunk.”

Sora’s grin was blinding. “So, does that mean I get to do this now?” He didn’t wait for a response before he closed the distance to stand directly in front of Riku. Wrapping his arms around the taller boy’s neck in one smooth movement, he tugged until their lips met in a surprisingly gentle kiss. Riku froze for only a moment before returning the embrace.

They pulled away from each other a few seconds later, eyes locked on each other’s faces. The moment broke when Kairi shoved herself in between them.

“Not fair,” she pouted. “You didn’t even give me a chance to kiss you guys first.”

“You snooze, you lose,” Sora teased. He didn’t wait for her to get angry—even if they all knew it was mostly acting—before leaning down and kissing her. Riku waited for him to pull away before swooping down and capturing her lips as well. She chuckled into the kiss, mock anger forgotten.

“You know, I have to say that if this is my reward for drinking that awful apple juice, it was worth it.” Sora looked unbearably smug, and Riku slapped a hand to his face.

“Please tell me you understand that it wasn’t _actually_ apple juice.” The younger boy scrunched up his nose thoughtfully.

“Well, that at least explains why it tasted so bad.” Kairi and Riku groaned in unison.

“No more drinking with Jack, please,” Kairi begged. “We literally had to carry you to bed, and my back can only take so much of that before I start to hunch over like a little old lady.”

“If you come back smelling like that again, I’m not kissing you.” Riku was only half-joking, and the way the other two teens stiffened told him that they understood. But the moment passed, and they all relaxed.

“For the sake of kissing, I won’t drink Jack’s gross apple juice anymore,” the younger boy said solemnly. Kairi shoved him, laughing as he complained. Riku leaned away as the two started a shoving match.

“If you two are going to start this up again, then you need to get out of my room. I still haven’t forgiven you for last time.” The other two whipped around to face him, matching looks of betrayal on their faces.

“I thought we agreed never to mention that again,” Sora cried.

“Yeah, well, it’s fair game when you guys are getting ready to destroy my stuff all over again.”

“Aww, you’re no fun.” Kairi crossed her arms again, a scowl on her face.

“And now you’re stuck with me,” he said, loving the way both of them softened instantly.

“Yeah,” Sora said. “We are. And I’m not letting either of you go any time soon.”

“Of course. The three of us are sticking together from now on.” Kairi’s voice was confident and unwavering, and Riku couldn’t help but believe her.

**Author's Note:**

> Secretly Insecure Sora is absolutely my jam, even if it makes me want to cry for three days. But, you've got to have some rain to balance out the sunshine.


End file.
